Trump pulls out of Republican debate

Donald Trump says he is pulling out of a Republican debate he had been due to moderate this month, after all but two of the US presidential candidates declined to appear.

Trump, who briefly flirted with his own Republican presidential run earlier this year, said he was pulling out of the December 27 debate due to a "conflict of interest" over his possible bid for the White House as an Independent candidate.

Only former House speaker Newt Gingrich, current frontrunner for the Republican nomination, and former senator Rick Santorum had said they would take part in the debate, hosted by news website Newsmax.

The debate would have come a week before the key January 3 Iowa caucuses, when the Republicans will hold their first vote to choose a candidate to take on Democratic President Barack Obama in the November 2012 elections.

"The Republican Party candidates are very concerned... I will announce my candidacy for president of the United States as an Independent," Trump said in a press release.

"Unless I conclusively agree not to run as an Independent, they will not agree to attend," he added.

"So that there is no conflict of interest within the Republican Party, I have decided not to be the moderator of the Newsmax debate.

"I can't give up that possibility of running, I just feel I owe it to myself, to my family, and perhaps most importantly to the country," he also said in a video statement posted to YouTube.

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney earlier became the latest candidate to skip the debate, after Michele Bachmann also said she would not attend, along with two other candidates, Jon Huntsman and Ron Paul.

Trump, a 65-year-old real estate mogul and reality television star, had made a healthy showing in some public opinion polls before dropping out of the White House race in May.

Famous for his vintage New York bluster, glamorous wives, business empire and The Apprentice TV show, Trump is not a party stalwart but a rebranded Republican who has switched party affiliation several times over the years. He nonetheless has considerable sway among Republicans.